


Forget me not

by Castiel_67



Series: Black Angel series [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers Tower, Avengers as family, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), F/M, Will adjust tags as I go!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24743011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castiel_67/pseuds/Castiel_67
Summary: Rachelle Novak. Captured by Hydra at the age of 12, she was given an evolved super soldier serum and trained to be the perfect weapon. Rescued by one Clint Barton 8 years later, she managed to make a life for herself. After the battle of New York, her life is going pretty well, having found a new family with the Avengers, but what happens when a mission goes wrong and her past comes back to haunt her?
Relationships: Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Black Angel series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789231
Kudos: 6





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I’ve posted...ever. And also tagging is a nightmare. Enjoy!

1998\. The year where everything changed. One day enjoying breakfast with her parents before walking to school with Hazel, her best friend, and the next being trafficked out of Germany to a secret base in Switzerland by Hydra operatives. Even at the young age of 12, Rachelle Novak knew her life was going to change drastically when 4 heavily armed men crashed through her front door one evening. Hidden, like her father had wanted, she tried to stay quiet as both her parents were shot to death. Watching their blood spill across the living room floor, her instincts had told her to run, to try to save her own skin before the men found her, or she'd risk ending up just like her mom and dad. Unfortunately, she hadn't been fast enough, one of the men caught up with her before she'd even gotten to the end of her street. Running on adrenaline and anger, she'd tried to fight off her attacker but even her strongest punch or bite had done nothing except make the man laugh. The last thing Rachelle remembered from that night was the sharp pain of a needle in her neck before total darkness had engulfed her. 

When she'd woken up, after god knew how long, she'd been on a bed in an unfamiliar room. It'd been sparsely furnished: the bed she was on, a nightstand and a desk. There'd been no decorations in the room, save for a weird looking logo up on the wall. The only thing of interest in the whole space had been the large window where she could see large mountains with white peaks: the Alps. A few minutes later, she'd been taken to see who she'd assumed was the leader of the compound by a man in a black uniform. There, they'd explained that her parents had been terminated because her father had discovered that Stenzel Industries, the company he had worked for, had ties with them, aka Hydra. They'd told her she would be kept here, in Switzerland, to receive training and bio-enhancement, whatever that meant. 

Over the next few weeks, she'd begun to receive gruelling military training, learning to obey, to fight, to kill, along with the 23 other girls who lived at the Switzerland Hydra base. Together, they formed Project Archangel. 

However, the "fun" had started, 2 months into their elite training, and that's where Rachelle had learnt the meaning of the phrase "bio-enhancement". Hydra had wanted to recreate the Super Soldier Serum used on Steve Rogers, but they hadn't wanted to stop there, they'd wanted to take it one step farther. They'd wanted to create a Self-Healing Super Soldier, ever better than Steve Rogers. One who could heal from terrible wounds without medical aid, perfect for field injuries. Already an ambitious feat, but Hydra didn't want to stop there. They wanted to create soldiers with the ability to heal others. Wound to big to heal on your own? No problem, your teammates could help you along.

So, for 2 full years, Rachelle and the other girls underwent relentless experiments, which sometimes led to horrible side effects, until they finally got what they wanted, well almost. The final touch? A little bit of mental blurring and focus redirecting. With that the anger and hurt Rachelle had felt towards Hydra for her parents murder and her own kidnapping, was dimmed and used to Hydra's advantage. With that an elite strike force of self-healing Super Soldiers who willingly did Hydra's dirty work, was born. 

For 4 more years, Rachelle had lived in the Switzerland compound, training, perfecting her skills, working on weapons, her personal favourite: the bow and arrow. She went on countless missions, taking down "bad guys'' and "evil organizations” who went against Hydra's ideals. Throughout the years, Hydra altered the brains of Project Archangel women to develop hatred for certain organisations and companies. So Rachelle grew to hate SHIELD, and, for some reason, Stark Industries and its new CEO, Tony Stark. 

Rachelle Novak's life seemed on a very dark path until 2005 when once again her life changed drastically. She had been sent by one of her handlers to take down a small SHIELD base in the whereabouts of Sydney Australia. Hydra had paired her with another elite Hydra operative to make the mission even easier, but turns out the man had actually been an undercover SHIELD agent who had spent months infiltrating Project Archangel. His cover compromised, she had moved to terminate him but before she'd known what was happening, she'd been surrounded by hundreds of SHIELD soldiers, more than she could ever take on by herself despite the Super Soldier Serum pumping through her veins, although she didn't go down without a fight. She'd ended up shot in the neck with a tranquiliser so intense she passed out even with her rapid healing abilities.

She'd woken up, in a room much different then the one she's had in Switzerland, it was bright, and nicely decorated, but most notably, someone was sitting by her side. It was the fake Hydra operative she'd fought with in Sydney before being overpowered. She had been confused and for some reason felt like part of her was missing, her instincts screamed at her to flee, to get back to Switzerland, to Hydra, but she was taken aback by the man sitting next to her. The first thing he'd said was: "Hey, I'm Clint, I know we didn't quite get off on the right foot, with you trying to kill me and all... how are you feeling?". Her entire being told her to kill him and get out of this room but instead she found herself replying: "Rachelle Novak, Black Angel 12, what did you do to me?". And so started a beautiful friendship. 

For months, SHEILD medical worked to remove the brainwashing Hydra had inflicted on her mind, slowly reverting Rachelle to her previous self, not the merciless killer she had been under Hydra's control, the process accelerated by her self-healing capabilities. During that time she'd developed a close relationship with Clint. Akin to family. He took her under his wing, taking the time to reintroduce her to life and the good it could give. They watched tv series together, had movie marathons, he took her to do normal things like sightseeing, having ice cream while walking in Central Park and they trained together. Both of them being masters of the arrows after all. For a long time, he'd been the only person she'd trusted fully but overtime came to accept Natasha as a friend. When SHIELD medical deemed her ready, with encouragement from both Clint and Natasha, she'd decided to join SHIELD. How ironic. 

Now that her mind was free of any manipulation, she felt terrible about all the things she'd done for Hydra, the organization that had murdered her parents and she'd wanted to amend her actions by helping SHIELD do good in the world while working to eliminate Hydra. Rachelle Novak, aka the Black Angel, became one of SHIELD's best agents.

By 2008, she had mostly acclimated back into normal life, although she was still working on her fear and distrust for medical treatment and doctors. After being experimented on for more than 2 years by Hydra her distrust was normal. All her pre and post SHIELD mission examinations were done with Clint by her side, always with the same medical staff. She went on missions, trained, hung out with Clint and Natasha, and did a lot of things she hadn’t been allowed to do while in Switzerland. Then, she and Clint had been sent to Afghanistan to find and bring home Tony Stark who had allegedly been kidnapped by the Ten Rings while out for a weapons demonstration, and after 3 months of intense effort, they had succeeded. 

Over the next 4 years, Rachelle Novak had done many things, she’d become friends with Tony Stark, of all people, seen and helped in the construction of the Iron Man suit, met Thor, the God of Thunder, became best friends with Captain America, joined the Avengers initiative, fought in the battle of New York and moved into the Avengers tower with the other 6 Avengers who become her new family. Oh and did she mention she started dating Tony Stark?


	2. Morning at Avengers Tower

🏹❤️🇺🇸🖤🌺

Reading a New York Times article about the famous Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers team, Rachelle was comfortably sitting on the couch in Tony’s lab. She’d decided to come down after breakfast to keep him company while she waited for Clint to emerge from his room.  
The archer had gotten back from a week-long mission just last night, completely exhausted so it was safe to assume he’d still been asleep when she'd woken up at 7.  
The billionaire, however, was bent over one of his many workbenches, tinkering with a weapon of some kind with the help of Dum-E. Well, depending on how you defined the word help...

“Why do they even bother writing articles about us anymore? I mean, the battle of New York was months ago, aren’t we old news by now?” She wondered, lowering the newspaper to look at Tony’s focused profile as he worked.  
“And are you sure this place is secure? I mean,I know you designed it and all, but they know so much about us! They even mention that Clint sometimes sleeps in the vents, for heaven’s sake!” She said, throwing her hands up in frustration.  
“I mean how could they know that Thor only ever has beer and pancakes for breakfast?!” she said, slowly unfolding her legs to stand up. “Next thing you know, they’ll be getting wind of sensitive intel about our ops or personal records! Just imagine what would happen if people found out about Natasha's past? Or mine?”

“Uh? What did you say sweetheart?” Tony said distractedly, still not looking up from what he was working on. Dum-E, the only one listening as he rotated on his base, pointing his mechanical limb in her direction.

She stretched her arms up over her head, threw the paper on one of the workbenches rolling her eyes good naturedly at the brown haired man sitting in front of her. She should know better than to have a coherent conversation with Tony while he was engrossed in one of his new inventions. She offered Dum-E a smile and friendly pat to the frame, before the robot turned back to Tony, who blindly extended his hand, reaching for one of the tools Dum-E held for him in a tray.

Sighing lightly, she walked up behind her boyfriend and brought her hands up to softly run her fingers through his hair, making it stick up even more than it already was. She saw his hands still mid-movement and felt his breath hitch, as she brought her hands down to caress his upper back. Her touch, seemingly provoking a short-circuit of the genius’s brain, effectively breaking the trance-like concentration he held on the weapon sitting on the workbench in front of him. After a moment, his systems appeared to reboot and he fell back on his stool so his head could rest on her chest lightly.

She laughed quietly, imagining his brown eyes sliding closed in comfort. Unable to help herself, Rachelle kissed the top of his head quickly and slid her arms around the man’s shoulders for a warm embrace. Tony hummed happily, making her laugh again. 

However, all comfort aside, after a few beats, she forced herself to let go, if not she might get stuck here forever. And if she was still planning on getting out of Tony’s lab to check if Clint had finally woken up, she couldn’t let that happen. Spinning around to leave, she heard her boyfriend’s desk chair whirl around accompanied by a disappointed sigh.

“Where are you going?” he whined from behind her. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes yet again: she could practically hear the pout that was no doubt resting on his lips.  
She twisted around to face the billionaire and just as she’d thought, his mouth was curled into a put-on pout and he was staring sadly towards her with big brown puppy eyes that he knew she couldn’t resist. But, as cute and huggable as he looked, she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of giving in so she just kept backing up towards the elevator.

“As much as I love watching you work,” 

And she really did, there was just something about watching Tony’s intellect hard at work, 

“I’m getting a little restless, downside of being a super soldier I guess, I have so much energy to burn!” She said, accentuating her point by dancing in time with the Imagine Dragons song that was blasting through the workshop’s speakers.  
She tried her best to ignore Tony wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at the mention of her enhanced stamina.  
Just like Steve, Rachelle was stronger, faster and generally more charged up than the common human, thanks to the super soldier serum. However, that did come with some downfalls such as having to eat more.  
“Sooo, I’m going to find Clint, see if he wants to go shoot some arrows down at the range.” She finished happily anticipating the workout. Tony gave her a warm smile as he aggressively air drummed to the pulse of “I’m So Sorry” and spun his chair in a rapid 360. Dum-E followed his creator’s lead, stiffly moving his arm up and down, mindless of the beat. She laughed at their antics and finally turned back around to step into the waiting elevator.

Just as the doors were about to close Tony called out: “Have fun with our resident Robin Hood!” 

She chose to ignore the taunting nickname he often used to refer to her best friend. She answered: “Don’t stay down here too long or I’ll have JARVIS after you.” Before the doors slid shut completely drowning out the thunderous music and Tony loud singing.

\-- A --

When they’d all decided to move into the tower a few weeks after the battle of New York, to fight evil, aka the remnants of Hydra and SHIELD’s enemies, Tony had decided to make all the elevators play 1940s music to pester Steve. So, here Rachelle was, riding up the elevator, swing tunes filling her ears as she thought back to her days as a Hydra operative. Back then spending the morning lazing around reading a newspaper and listening to music with her boyfriend would have been unimaginable.  
When she’d first arrived in Switzerland, every waking moment of every day had been spent training in the arts of weapons, fighting and killing. When she and the 23 other female captives weren’t training, they were either eating, practicing hygiene or sleeping, all of which was performed under the watchful eye of Hydra guards. Nothing discouraged socializing or planning to run away like the barrel of a gun to your forehead.  
However, in her bed at night, curled in on herself, trying to forget the pain, her 12 year old mind had often dreamed of being set free, of escaping her dark room and her evil kidnappers who had so brutally murdered her family.  
However, the dreams stopped 2 years later when the Hydra scientists started they’re bio-enhancement experiments alongside their daily training regimen. Her head was filled with so much pain, agony and the rigorous motions of training that any hope of escape had been snuffed.  
She had breathed a sigh of relief when the testing had been complete, a couple of years later still, the pain was over but her body was different and her mind seemed altered, there was so much hate that hadn’t been there before. However, that unnatural feeling had soon faded as she came to embrace the hate and she and the 23 other Black Angels had no longer needed guards to prevent their escape because now the young women of Project Archangel willingly worked for Hydra doing what they did best, killing Hydras enemies mercilessly. In her years as a full blown Black Angel, Rachelle had done unspeakable things and even though she now knew that Hydra had placed her under some kind of mind control, she still felt terrible.

Ever since her detachment from Hydra and it’s control, thanks to one Clint Barton and the staff of SHIELD medical, she had learned to enjoy everything that she had been robbed of in her teenage years. Clint and eventually Natasha had been vital in her adjustment to normal super soldier life… And the more she got to enjoy the little things like a meal with friends, a stroll in the park, a movie marathon, a nice drive or a morning with Tony, the more she’d wished she could’ve had that as a child. Sadly, not for the first time, she wondered how her life would have turned out if those Hydra men hadn’t crashed the family supper all the way back in 1998…

She was brought out of her stupor when the lift doors finally opened, which was a good thing because thinking too much about the past could bring her to dark places. She stepped out revealing the tower’s empty living room. She loved the open floor plan and modern architecture, reminiscent of Tony’s Malibu mansion. This room had been host to many post mission movie marathons and late night gatherings accompanied with a few drinks and a friendly game of pool up in the loft overlooking both the New York skyline and the living room below.  
Originally built to hold headquarters for Stark Industries, Tony had redesigned and rechristened the tower after the Avengers had come back together a few weeks after the battle of New York. Now, the tower held everything from training space and shooting ranges to laboratories and recreational areas. Rachelle and the others even had their own floor to serve as personal living space!

She walked towards the kitchen, sparing a glance out the large windows to see Manhattan shining in the Tuesday morning sun, deciding the best place to start looking for Clint would be by the coffee machine, given as he seemed to spend at least 50% of his day standing next to it as he anxiously waited on cup after cup to finish brewing. However, instead of bumping into her sharp eyed friend, she found Steve with his head stuck in the fridge.

“Hey Steve!” Rachelle said, taking a seat at the island counter as she watched Steve rummage around purposely, presumably digging for some missing ingredient to complete the sandwich that lay half constructed in front of her. 

She noticed his shoulders give a slight jump of surprise, obviously he hadn’t sensed her quiet arrival. This made her smile a little.  
Given that Steve was a super soldier and possessed all the cool side effects that came with the mantle, he should have been able to hear her footsteps approaching, alerting him of her presence in the kitchen. This act alone, a testament of how comfortable and safe all the Avengers felt here, so at ease in fact that they let their guards down around each other and felt free to be themselves, without having to worry about life or death threats. Even she felt perfectly at ease in the tower around her fellow Avengers, and giving her life experiences that was saying something.  
She heard him mutter a triumphant “Aha!” before he turned around with a jar of mayonnaise in his hand.

“Hey!” He said grinning at her. “Want one?” He gestured to the sandwich with the butter knife which he then dipped into the now open jar.

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

“This tastes so much better then back in my day.” He said, licking a bit of mayo from his thumb.

“They had Helman’s back then?” She asked curiously. Steve may still be a man out of time, despite his best efforts, still getting used to life in the 21st century, but there was no one better to talk to about life in the early 1900’s. The man was like an open history book and Rachelle absolutely loved hearing all of his childhood stories and adventures with Bucky.

Steve sat down next to her, taking a bite of his enormous sandwich and swallowed before recounting away. Rachelle listened intently as her friend talked so openly about his youth in Queens, New York and all the bizarre foods his mother had made for him before she’d died.

\-- A --

Taking a last bite out of his meal, as Rachelle laughed heartily, unable to unstick the picture of Steve accidentally drinking dirty laundry water after his mom had left the full basin on the stove, Steve asked not unkindly:

“Weren't you supposed to be with Tony?” 

After a beat he glanced in her direction: “Did he kick you out of his lab again?” He chuckled, getting up to wash his plate in the sink. Rachelle effectively stopped laughing in favour of sending her friend a heated glare.

“That was one time!” She said indignantly, but only sighed when Steve, twisted around to look at her, blue eyes wide with knowing.  
Unable to lie to the blond man she conceded:  
“Ok, ok twice! But how was I supposed to know that thing would blow up if I touched it? It’s not like he puts up signs or anything!”

“If you say so…” He said with fake doubt.

“Hey!” She said, “You know i can’t lie to you, all you do is give me the cold Captain America stare, full of all that blue eyed righteousness and I instantly feel bad and tell you the truth.” She laughed

“Come on!” He said, “You’re a Black Angel, you can lie with your eyes closed.” 

“True, mind you I'm not as good as I was when I was under Hydra’s control… Now I tend to feel bad.” She said thoughtfully. When SHIELD had undone Hydra’s mind control, she found that everything that’d she’d learnt at the base in Switzerland, had stayed intact, everything from fighting, to espionage, to killing and lying. However, with her emotions back in check she’d found lying to people she cared about a little more difficult then before especially when it came to the Cap. 

“Could still fool all the others though, especially Tony.” She continued, “But, I don’t think my deceitfulness’ ever been a match for Captain America’s glare.” She laughed happily. 

”I’m touched.” He said grinning, “All I’m saying is that you must really like the guy if you willingly step into that danger zone he likes to call his lab.” He laughed.

“Shut up Steve!” She said with no real heat. “And, for your information, I wasn’t kicked out this time, I left.” Steve dried off his hands and moved over to the coffee machine to make a pot of everyone’s favourite stimulant. The action reminded her of the reason she’d come into the kitchen in the first place. 

“Have you seen Clint?” She asked.

“He’s in his room. Something about needing to sleep off the next 10 years.” He answered. “Heard his mission didn’t go too well.”

Rachelle frowned, making a mental note to ask her friend about it. For the last week, Clint had been overseas leading a SHIELD operation involving a hostage situation. He’d only gotten back last night and she’d wanted to give him time to catch up on his sleep before she went to see him. Hopefully, the ordeal hadn’t beaten him up too much.

Missions could sometimes take a toll on them and each had their own way of dealing with the stress and post mission adrenaline, some better then others... but enough said. For example, Tony tended to disappear in his lab until he could process everything. As for Clint, Rachelle knew things could go one of 2 ways: if the op had gone well, he would usually disappear in his room or in the vents for half a day before reemerging refreshed, cup of coffee in hand and back to being his playful and annoying self. Or, if the mission had gone south, he would maul it over in his head, unable to sleep, becoming cranky and withdrawn until something came along to take his mind off it.

Guessing how her best friend would be feeling she said: “Alright, I’ll go check on him. See if he wants some company.” With that she walked out of the kitchen, leaving Steve to wait on his coffee all by his lonesome.

\-- A --

Given that Clint's personal living space was only 2 floors down, she opted on taking the stairs, not in the mood to listen to 40’s swing music at the moment. 

Reaching the agent’s “front door”, characterized by a purple target embedded on the frosted glass, she opted against knocking and was about to step right into her friend’s very own part of the Avengers tower before she stopped herself short.

“JARVIS? You there?” She whispered.

“Always, miss Novak.” The AI responded just as quietly, sensing that discretion was of the essence.

“Is Clint asleep?” She asked, realizing she probably should have asked that before coming all the way down here. On the off chance that the man may actually be getting some shut eye, she didn’t want to wake him. Heavens knew they all deserved a good rest after missions.

“No, Agent Barton is currently experiencing what I believe you would call insomnia.” He answered matter-of-factly.

She sighed half heartedly, it looked like her hunch had been right: post mission option number 2 was in effect: something must've gone wrong with the hostages and Clint was taking it with a heavy heart.

Satisfied she wouldn’t disrupt his sleep, she walked through the door in search of her friend.

She took in his space for the thousandth time. Although the whole architectural design had a very modern feel to it, courtesy of Tony, Clint had managed to make it his own space. He had added furniture and decor of a more rustic style. Surprisingly, it didn’t look half as crazy as you’d think. A few rock posters were hung up on the wall and Clint’s appreciation for the colour purple was reflected in the room’s decoration. However, the true pieces of resistance were all the bow and arrows displayed proudly around the living space.

With no sign of Clint in the kitchen or living room, she quietly went to his bedroom stopping just short of the threshold. 

Rachelle poked her head through the opening to see her friend’s still form lying on the bed, the sheets still neat and unruffled. Even if JARVIS hadn’t told her so, she would have known instantly Clint was awake, even if to everyone else he might have appeared to be happily slumbering. The visual tension in his face and shoulders was a dead give away. 

“Was wondering when you’d show up.” He suddenly said, barely loud enough for her to hear him, even with her heightened hearing. Taking it as an invitation of sorts, she went over to the bed, choosing to ignore the bottle of hard alcohol sitting on his nightstand, and chose to lie next to him in silence for a few moments, knowing that despite his closed eyes, he was listening to her.

“Can’t sleep?” She asked casually.

“Not a wink.” He said, no sign of drowsiness in his voice.

“Must be the caffeine.” She said lightly, knowing that no amount of caffeine could keep Clint up after a long mission. “How many today, like 6 cups in the last 24 hours?”

“Oh how you underestimate me” He said wounded. And after a moment he added: “8 cups.” He laughed.

“Good heavens Clint!” She said, but honestly she knew he’d had worse. After a moment, she asked him: “Do you wanna talk about it?” Even to her ears it sounded pathetic, but to this day, she had yet to improve her bedside manner even though she did care very much for the people's bedside she sat by.  
“Maybe later.” He responded simply. And she knew not to push it. Instead, she sat up and grabbed the bottle of whisky and poured herself a shot. She downed it and handed one to Clint who swallowed it gladly. She offered him a warm hug in which she tried to convey her love and compassion. Also using the close embrace to see if her friend had any injuries. Then they sat back, in companionable silence before she suggested:

“You up to go shoot some arrows?” She asked, pushing him in the shoulder playfully, knowing that getting out of his dark room and socializing a little would do him some good.

“Sure beats lying here, let’s go” He responded, springing off the bed forcing her to run to catch up.

\-- A --

“They don’t call me Hawkeye for nothing you know.” Clint triumphed, looking back as he strode out of the elevator, a good 2 hours later, Rachelle right on his heels.

“Stop boasting!” She responded “You only won the bet by 2 bulls eyes!” 

Ever since she had joined SHIELD and she and Clint had started regularly training and going on missions together, the fact that their signature weapons were the bow and arrow had been a constant point of competition.

This sparked a rivalry between the two of them that spanned into any aspect of their lives that could be turned into a contest ranging from playing video games and singing karaoke to doing shots and practicing hand to hand combat.

Hence, why at half past noon, after a good two spent at the shooting range, they were arguing about who had scored the most hits during their casual training session. Upon their arrival at the tower, Tony had created an impressive training space for them which used 3D landscape design and holograms to recreate plausible environments and intelligent targets.

“Nah, I’m sure it was more than that.” Clint said as Rachelle entered the kitchen after him, spotting Natasha sitting cross legged at the island counter enjoying a well garnished salad.

“JARVIS back me up!” She said happy she’d had the AI keep count of their points.

“You are quite right, Miss Rachelle, Agent Barton only racked up 2 additional points.”

“Thank you!” She said happily, snapping her fingers in the direction of the ceiling before pointing to Clint with a smirk.

“See?” She said “2 points!”

Clint walked over to the coffee machine to make his umpteeth cup of caffeine of the  
day. Honestly, sometimes Rachelle thought that he consumed even more than Tony did, and that was saying something. 

“Pay up!” He said triumphantly, opening up his right hand in her direction. “2 points is 2 points.”

“Fine!” She said reluctantly handing over a 10 dollar bill she’d just happen to have in the back pocket of her jeans. Then, her stomach growled angrily reminding her that she hadn’t had any breakfast. Nothing like a good workout to open up one's appetite. 

“Are you guys still fighting over who’s the best archer?” Natasha said, finishing up her lunch, completely unfazed by their bickering, something that happened more often than they liked to admit.

“No...”

“Yes!” they said simultaneously, glaring at each other causing Natasha to roll her eyes at their antics.

“Are you sure you guys aren’t related somehow?” Nat said, “I’m really getting siblings vibes here.” But her question went unanswered as Clint spoke again.

“We aren’t fighting about it anymore, because we’ve already established that I am the king of the arrows!” he said triumphantly, “You said it yourself, I beat you by 2 bulls eyes.”

“Yeah, and who won yesterday?, Katniss?” she said smiling smugly in his direction as she pulled out everything she’d need from the fridge to make ham and cheese sandwiches for the both of them. 

“You cheated!” he cried indigintly as he hoisted himself unto the counter letting his legs dangle as he waited for Rachelle to finish constructing his sandwich.

“Did not!” she replied, crossing her arms. 

“Can’t we just agree that both of you are great archers?” Natasha asked, having been witness to this conflict many times before.  
“No!” They both exclaimed, Natasha sighed and reasoned: “Why don’t you just see who takes out the most bad guys on the next mission?” said Natasha smartly, obviously sensing that this argument could draw on for quite some time.

“You are so on!” yelled Clint 

“I am going to beat your ass!” she said confidently before handing Clint his plate and they both let the matter drop as they started hungrily on their lunch.  
Rachelle saw Nat shake her head slightly before getting up to put her bowl in the state of the art dishwasher.

“You guys are literal children, you know that?” she said half seriously, half teasingly.

“We are not, we are grown up responsible adults!” said Clint, sending an innocent smile towards his red headed best friend as she walked off to the living room.

\-- A --

A few minutes later, she and her fellow archer walked into the living room, trying to decide on which movie to have Jarvis boot up on the flat screen, Skyfall or the Bourne Legacy. For some reason, Clint thought the lead actor in Bourne looked too much like him to be able to comfortably watch.

“I’m telling you, it’s like he’s my lost twin of something,” he told her, “freaks me out!”

“I think it’s hilarious!” She said.

However, their argument was brought to an abrupt end when they noticed 3 of their fellow Avengers sitting comfortably across the many loveseats, couches and chairs that could easily fit the entire team and a few friends, watching the opening scene of the first Rocky movie.

“Hey!” Rachelle exclaimed, disappointed, walking over to swat Steve on the shoulder.

“What’s that for?” The blonde man asked surprised, Natasha looked up from her phone with interest and Thor tore his eyes away from the screen, plunging his hand in the popcorn bowl and stuffed a big handful in his mouth.

“You’re watching Rocky without me!”

“Sorry, Thor picked the movie, I didn’t think!”

“No kidding!”

When they’d moved in, Rachelle had taken to getting to know all of her colleagues, after all she’d be stuck with them for the foreseeable future. They’d already lived through a completely mind binding, world shattering experience together, but she didn’t really know them as friends.

A couple of days after settling in, she’d walked into the kitchen sitting at the island counter, taking notes in a little notebook. Ever so curious, she’d asked him about it. Turns out he'd been making a list of all the things he needed to catch up on. After all, a lot had happened in the 70 years he’d been sleeping in the ice. So, Rachelle had taken the time to help him out with his list and they often spent time together ticking off some boxes. And, you guessed it, one of the first things she had suggested had been the Rocky movies.

Unfazed, Clint walked past her and sat down heavily in between the blonde men and stole the bowl of butter popcorn from Thor’s hands. Everyone was accounted for except for Bruce who’d taken a humanitarian trip to Brazil and Tony who Rachelle suspected was still holed up in his lab.

“I’ll let you off the hook this time” She told Steve, “But you’d better restart it when I come back up here with Tony.” However, her threat was met with deaf ears as all 3 boys' eyes were glued back on the screen and Nat’s attention was back on her phone.

Knowing which battles to pick, when it came to television all men were the same, Avengers or not, so she quietly walked back to the kitchen before calling out to JARVIS:

“Yes, Rachelle?” answered the AI, with what Rachelle thought was fondness. Ever since she’d met his acquaintance a few days after rescuing Tony from the Ten Rings in Afghanistan, she hadn’t been able to believe that he was merely an artificial intelligence software and not a real physical being. However, she knew Tony saw him as a friend and over time, JARVIS had really grown on her too. 

“Has Tony left his lab since I’ve been gone?” She said, already pretty sure of what he was going to say.

“Mister Stark has not left the laboratory since 7:04 am, shall I initiate the intervention protocol level 1?” He asked helpfully.

The STARK CRISIS Protocols. They had been imputed into JARVIS’s system by Natasha after all the Avengers had gotten together to discuss Tony’s degrading mental health and PTSD issues after the Chitauri invasion. They had started to take notice of Tony’s frequent wild benders where he would shut the world out and ignore his most basic needs for hours and even days at a time, holled up in his lab with only Dum-E, U and JARVIS for company until he was on the verge of collapse.  
The whole team tended to keep a good eye on each other so the protocols had only been used twice in the past year.

Rachelle sighed, grabbing an apple and power bar from the counter for her no doubt starving genius before walking back out across the living room.

“Don’t worry about it JARVIS, I’ll go take care of it myself.” She told him, confident in her abilities to pull Tony out of his workshop. “Thanks!”

“It was my pleasure Rachelle.” He said as she quickly made her way down to her favourite genius’s lab.

\-- A --

She walked into the workshop to find Tony, exactly where she knew he would be, his head still bent over that same weapon as that morning, the only thing that had changed in the room at all was its state of disarray.

When she had left that morning, the lab had been relatively organized and her boyfriend had looked halfway sane. Now however, the room was a complete mess, tools were scattered everywhere, the main workbench was so full of stuff you couldn’t see the surface, and judging by the dark spot on the floor over in the corner, it looked like there had been a small fire.  
Tony, however, had no problem fitting into his wild surroundings with his brown hair sitting all disheveled and his clothes all askew covered in grease, grime and sweat, looking not unlike a mad scientist.

“Tony?” She called, a little concern sneaking into her voice, as she slowly walked over to where he was seated, careful to keep her hands to herself and feet well away from any discarded parts on the floor. Steve’s earlier teasing, brought back the time she’d accidentally caused an explosion, to the forefront of her mind.  
Arriving by his side, she breathed a small sigh of relief, no explosions this time, and made room on the workspace to put down the food she’d brought for him.

“Oh hey Rachelle!” Tony said brightly looking up at her, eyes stopping to stare at the power bar sitting next to him, his face breaking into a smile as he grabbed it, tore the package open and took a huge bite. Looks like her hunch had been right, Tony had forgotten to eat… again. 

Before she could even begin her tirade about how this kind of crazed behaviour was not healthy, Tony grabbed his weird looking contraption from the workbench and started explaining how all the different parts worked.

Her boyfriend was in his element, talking at a hundred miles a minute as he explained every little thing about his device and his creative process for it. Knowing he could be in this excitable state for quite some time, she sat down on the swivel chair next to him, put her elbows to her knees and listened intently. It’s not like she understood everything he was saying, even though she really did try, but all those complicated scientific concepts were a little hard to grasp at times.  
Tony’s hands were flying around as he took the time to illustrate concepts to her, popping up holoprojections, graphs and diagrams to help her out, his eyes completely lit up as he explained.  
She just loved seeing her boyfriend so full of life and excitement as he made her a part of his interests and shared his victories with her. The fact that he trusted her so fully as to let her see this part of him, his true self, not hidden away behind a politically correct smile and a sky high ego, warmed her heart.

As he finished up, quite a few minutes later, she edged forward on her seat and effectively closed the distance between them to press her lips to his affectionately, catching completely off guard .

“What was that for?” He asked almost shyly, his big ego nowhere in sight, which made her smile even wider. Usually, he tended to quip about his good looks when she caught him by surprise, not that she minded of course. He wouldn't be Tony if he didn’t

“Don’t ever change.” She told him fondly before pulling him up by the hand. When the brown haired man opened his arms for an embrace, she didn’t hesitate to step right into it, despite the state of his clothing. She gently laid her head on his chest, feeling the coolness of the arc reactor against her cheek, listening to his steady heartbeat and she felt him rest his chin on her head and his work rough hand run through her wavy hair. Time seemed to stand still as they simply stood there enjoying each other’s closeness.

“Come on, you’ve been cooped up in here for too long.” She said effectively breaking the moment as she let go of Tony in favour of jabbing him in the chest accusingly with her index finger, back to her original plan of getting Tony out of his lab and reconnected with the rest of civilization. “Even JARVIS was starting to worry.”

“Ah JARVIS, you told on me?” He asked his AI, voice full of betrayal.

“My apologies sir, but it was in your best interest.” Replied JARVIS calmly. 

“Stop annoying him, he just cares about you.” She said, “Now, I wasn’t gonna mention it, but you desperately need a shower” She laughed “Go get cleaned up and meet us back in the living room, Steve and Thor started watching Rocky a few minutes ago.” She added excitedly.

“Ah, so you finally convinced Capsicle to watch it?”

“I did, now come on, if you get a move on I’ll have them restart it so we can all watch it together!” She smiled at him, grabbing his hand to drag him to the elevator.

“And why do you insist on calling Steve Capsicle? You know he doesn’t like it!” She said in reprimand as they rode up in the elevator to Tony’s penthouse floor.

“Why do you think I call him that?” He replied with a smirk.

\--A --

Rachelle walked back into the living room to much the same sight as when she left except that the popcorn bowl had already been emptied, courtesy of the 3 men sitting on the couch.

Natasha looked up from her phone at her arrival, clearly not as engrossed in the movie.

“Did you manage to get Tony out of his lab?” She asked, with a slight concern. Sometimes it was hard to get Tony to come back to reality, hence the STARK Protocols.

“Yeah he’s just cleaning up, he was a mess!” She told them, not that this statement surprised any of them. “I even think he may have singed his hair a bit.”

That got an eyebrow raise from Nat, even if that wasn’t the craziest thing Tony had suffered through at the hands of his inventions. “And fair warning, i’d avoid going down there for a while.” She added, walking over to stand right by the couch behind Steve.

“Enjoying the movie Steve?” She asked with semi-false annoyance.

“I’m sorry!” He laughed, not the slightest bit apologetic, “But since you asked, yes, I’m rather enjoying it, might hit the punching bag after this!” He said with another laugh.

Then Thor's booming voice filled the room.

“I fail to see how this man is a great warrior! He chooses to beat up dead animal carcasses.”

“Watch to the end Thor, you’ll see.” She laughed. “Anyway I could convince you start it over?” She asked turning to Clint who held the remote. “Tony wants in on it.”

“Let me see…“ He said slowly just to annoy her. “You could go fill up the popcorn for the Avengers’ best archer!” He said with a smug smile as he extended his arm to swing the large bowl over the back of the couch. 

She snatched it from his grasp, pointely rolling her eyes at the man.

“That’s yet to be decided!” She said leaving in the general direction of the kitchen.

“Get me another one of these fizzy drinks.” She heard Thor ask loudly as she unwrapped another bag of butter popcorn to stick in the microwave.

“They're called Cokes.” She heard Steve say. “They’ve been around for a long time. Bucky and I used to drink some together sometimes...” She heard the sad nostalgia in his voice as he mentioned his best friend and she felt her heart ache a little. “They don’t taste quite the same from back in my day.” He added on a lighter note.

She heard Natasha say something, probably making a light hearted joke at Steve’s expense, and Clint laughed.

She smiled at her friends, her family’s camaraderie as she leaned against the kitchen’s island counter, watching the bag of popcorn rotate in the microwave. She tuned out the rest of their conversation as her thoughts turned to family. 

At the small age of 12, she had lived through every child’s worst nightmare, her parents had been murdered. Since then she’d had no real concept of family. Hydra operatives weren’t family, her 23 fellow Black Angels weren’t so much family as a group of scared little girls.  
But in the past years she’d started building a new family for herself, starting with Clint. He was like a brother, he was the one who had recruited her for SHIELD after rescuing her from a HYDRA base in Switzerland 7 years ago. If it hadn’t been for Clint, her life would have continued on a very dark path. She had quickly developed a friendship with Natasha and upon joining the Avengers initiative, she had grown to know and love Steve, Thor and Bruce just as much as the other 2.  
And of course she had met Tony Stark, genius, philanthropist, and kind hearted man who made her feel safe and loved. Well after overcoming a few hurdles.... Together all 7 of them, the Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes formed a family, her family. One that she couldn’t imagine living without.

She was brought back to the present by the sound of the microwave beeping, loudly announcing that the popcorn was now warm and ready to be eaten.

She carefully took the steaming bag out of the appliance and poured its contents into the waiting bowl, putting the latter on the tray and tasked herself on preparing drinks for everyone before walking back to the living room

As promised, Clint had stopped the movie and the screen now showed the DVDs main menu, all ready to start again.

Just then, Tony walked into the room, looking much better than when Rachelle had gone to get him in the lab, dirty clothes gone and replaced by a freshly laundered set of jeans and Led Zeppelin shirt . 

“There he is!” Clint said from where he now sat on the carpet his mouth full of popcorn. “Thought we were going to have to form a rescue party.”

“Can it Legolas!” Could be worse right?I could sleep in the vents, oh wait… that’s you.” Came Tony’s reply as he threw himself on one of the vacant couches. 

“Ok that’s enough guys!” Said Natasha effectively causing everyone to shut up, she’d always had a knack for telling when arguments were about to start, friendly or not.  
She unfurled herself from her chair and came to lie down next to Steve, resting her head on his thighs. Rachelle had to hold in her laugh at Steve’s look of panic as she made herself comfortable but all she did was give her friend a nod of encouragement.  
Winking when he put a hand down on her waist casually. Rachelle had a feeling Steve and Nat had the potential for something more than friends if only Steve manned up a little and took a hint.  
“Now that everyone’s here, let’s start this thing” Natasha said looking up at Steve with a smile. “Steve is dying to know how it ends.”

Rachelle grabbed a handful of snacks from Clint and went to sit next to Tony who had gestured for her to join him, and when she sat down comfortably, she found herself embraced by 2 strong arms. She leaned back into the brown haired man’s chest and let herself relax as Clint started the movie up again.

“Rocky, take 2,” He exclaimed, settling down to watch.

\--A --

Halfway through the movie, Rachelle was comfortably snuggled up against Tony, happily watching with the others.  
Taking time to answer any of Thor or Steve’s questions along the way, it was their first time watching after all.  
She loved moments like this: when they were just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. Where they could just relax and be themselves while not worrying about having to save the world. She snuggled closer as she watched Rocky talk to Adrian.  
Looking up to see Tony fully engrossed in the movie, she smiled and gently rested her hand over the glow of the arc reactor in his chest.  
Tony tended to be a little self conscious about it, but she loved it, it was such an important part of him. It's distinct hum as familiar to her ears as his strong heartbeat. She doubted she would ever forget that sound.  
“Love you.” She whispered as she felt him squeeze her shoulders and look down at her warmly. “Love you too…” he responded fondly, a little redness crossing his cheeks.

“Get a room you two!” Said Clint who threw them a few of his precious popcorn kernels. Before she or Tony could quip back, Natasha stepped in: “Shut up Barton, they're happy.” She said nicely before adding teasingly: “And she makes him more bearable.”  
“She’s got a point.” Supplied Steve from his seat next to Thor who thought best to stay out of the conversation, duly focused on the Midguardian movie. 

—A—

A while later, she noticed that Tony was getting uncomfortable, constantly adjusting his position on the couch. He was moving in such a stiff way, that she instantly knew he was hurting somewhere but was trying to make it seem like no big deal. He should know better than to play off injuries with excuses like “I’m just restless.” Or “Just excited to get back to the lab.” She always found out the truth.  
She shifted until she was sitting behind Tony and purposefully let her hands wander around his back, arms, head and neck, much to his contentment. Until she found what was wrong, his neck was stiff as a board, all that sitting cramped over an invention for hours on end had probably been the cause.

“Tony…” She said with soft reprimand, “you could have just said something.” 

The only good thing that had come from being held captive at a HYDRA base for 7 years, apart from becoming a fighter worthy of the Avengers initiative, was that her body had gained the ability to sustain a greater amount of physical damage without dying because she could heal at an incredible rate, hence the name: self healing super soldier.  
However, that had come with some interesting side effects such as being able to heal physical injuries of others.  
So, as she sat there watching Rocky, she slowly let her hands work their healing powers on her boyfriend’s neck until it was good as new.

“It was nothing.” He said, “And if I always ask you to heal every scrape I get, you’re going to think I’m only dating you because of your magic hands.” He said before he kissed her head, “And you know that’s not true, right?” He asked her.

Surprised he didn’t joke about her “magic hands, she decided to tease him a little.  
“Maybe so, but what about me? How do you know I’m not just dating you because you're Iron Man, not to mention good looking?” She said with mock seriousness.

“Ouch!” He said, pulling away from her.

She laughed. “I’m just kidding! We all know I’m with you for the money.”

“Yeah, she’s planning on doing away with you so she can get an inheritance and share it with the 5 of us.” Clint put in helpfully, not tearing his eyes away from the screen. “Didn’t you know?”

Before anyone could say anything else, JARVIS interrupted:

“I am sorry to disturb you sir, but Director Fury is on the line.”

Tony groaned in frustration. “Were not here Jarvis.”

“Sir.” Replied the AI unfazed by his creators' antics.

Tony sighed over dramatically. “Alright, alright, put him on J.”

Suddenly, the movie paused, and a video call displaying one annoyed looking Director Nick Fury, popped up on the screen for all to see.

“What is this? An episode of One big happy family?” He asked like the sight of them sitting together offended him. Everyone had the sense to keep any retorque to themselves as he went on. “Anyways, if you aren’t too busy bonding together, I have a mission for you…”

-A-

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 1.5


End file.
